Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Throughout the awards season, we’ll get around to some much-discussed films that we didn’t previously review.

Every year a new biopic gets released and I cannot contain my hesitation. You find biographical films that are tossed together with all haste in shameful attempts at garnering awards at the end of the calendar year, and these approaches are painfully transparent. Then you get a film like Chinonye Chukwu's Till: a film about Emmett Till's mother, Mamie, during the awful timeline where her son was murdered via shooting and lynching. Till ticks off quite a few awards-season boxes, including its thought provoking score by Abel Korzeniowski, and the heavy emphasis on performances. Don't be mistaken, though. Till is lovingly made, and this is apparent by how many aspects of the film don't necessarily abide by the biopic code: the most sanitary blueprint of filmmaking.

Most storytellers would have focused on Mamie Till-Bradley's years of activism after her son's death, but Till isn't interested in being a typical, uplifting picture when that's been done plenty of times before (and without a soul to boot). Till takes its time setting the scene instead. We get around a half an hour of background information on Emmett Till – a Chicago native – and his Mississippi visit in 1955. You hear his mother's words of caution, see part of his trip take place, and even are lead up to the unfortunate night after he allegedly whistled at a white girl. Chukwu tastefully shields us from the murder itself, although we can hear it taking place. She saves the most graphic moments for when we see Emmett Till's mangled corpse in a casket at his funeral for the utmost effect, and it's a sight that even got me – a highly desensitized individual – wincing. This is a very real, startling image, and one that still needs to be recognized: this is what hate is capable of.

Till is told almost entirely from Mamie's perspective, and Chukwu is incredibly precise with how she portrays this angle. We get one of the best uses of a dolly zoom I've seen in years once Mamie realizes that her son is dead (it is an incredibly slow effect that savours the technique and really places you in her shoes amid delirious disbelief). When Mamie is on the stand during the court case meant to penalize Emmett's murderers later on in the film, we fix on her for lengthy, single shots, and Till never feels the need to liven up its pacing or aesthetics via a flurry of cuts or synthetic music cues. Chukwu trusts what and who she has, and who can blame her when Danielle Deadwyler is leading her picture? Deadwyler is perfect as Mamie, delivering one of the most powerful performances of the year. When the camera locks in on her without cutting away, she puts on a masterclass of emotional acting. She never goes overboard and remains human, but she doesn't under sell the gravity of the situation either. If you want to know what a heart destroyed by grief looks like, this performance is the definition of gut-wrenching acting.

Till proceeds with the trial despite most of us knowing the outcome. It isn't about learning new information: Till grants us the reasons why Mamie Till-Bradley chose to devote her entire life to fighting for this cause. The film even abandons the trial once it starts getting into racist territory, where Emmett was blamed and lied about because of his skin colour: many other directors would have focused entirely on these kinds of moments, but Chukwu knows that even just a slice of this information is all that we need to know. A grieving mother pouring her heart out for the world to witness isn't enough in an imbalanced, hateful society. Chukwu instead prioritizes the elements that humanize this story without ever intentionally creating Oscar-worthy moments (although this does feel impossible to avoid when Deadwyler is as good as she is). This sets Till apart from other similar films this year (or any other awards season), and it is a testament to Chukwu's wisdom as a director. Till may be a great example of what an awards season darling can be because it doesn't feel like it was created to be such a case: Chukwu just wanted to paint a loving picture of an activist whose entire life changed the moment her son was stolen from her.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.